How to Shave With a Safety Razor

Though Safety Razors are not very popular nowadays they provide many advantages over modern cartridge razors. More and more men use them almost on a daily basis. While many of them know how to make the best use of it, there are others who continue to struggle. It is common for them to end up with cuts, nicks and abrasions. Many people continue using cartridge razors just because they afraid to learn proper shaving technique with double-edge blade. In this article we will highlight all the details about how to use a safety razor.

High Quality Only

Everything starts from what shaving tool you have in your hands! The process of smooth, safe and complete shaving should begin with the task of identifying and purchasing the right razor. If you go through the right due diligence and spend some time on it, you could end up finding a razor which could last you a lifetime. Since you will be buying it only once or twice, you should learn to invest in quality.

It would be not advisable to compromise on price under any circumstances. You should always look for a razor that you are comfortable holding in your hands. It should be neither too light nor too heavy. It might call for understanding a bit about the dynamics of proper shaving and here again you must spend some time gathering the right information and knowledge.

It’s also important to by high-quality blades! Pay a lot of attention to this. The blade is what removes your hair!!! If the blades you are using are low quality and cheap you will most likely be unsatisfied with shaving. Make sure you are using the best products only.

Assembling Razor

Double-edged razors consists of three parts: the handle, the comb and the head. You need to unscrew head and comp and place the blade between them. The blade has special wholes and it’s impossible to place it wrong. Don’t forget that blades are extremely sharp! Don’t rush or you can cut yourself.

Prepare Your Skin Properly

Even the best of razors will work only when the skin is properly prepared and made ready for the shaving. First of all wash your face to remove dirt and dead skin. Some people like to use glycerin soap. It’s a good decision. This soap will help to clear the face and make it smoother.

The second step is applying a hot towel to your face. This will help a lot in making your facial skin and hair soft. It’s a very old trick and your grandfather did it regularly before shaving.

If you don’t want to use towel, using pre shave oil would be a great alternative. This could go a long way in helping your face to have a protective barrier. This will help the skin to become soft and supple and the razor will glide. Though this may not exactly be related to choosing the right razor, not knowing this fact will not help even if you buy the most expensive and sophisticated “tool”.

While your face is getting ready you can prepare a cup of warm water you will use for cleaning razor. It’s not recommended to use cold water because using warm water is much more pleasant.

Lathering Beard

Start from applying lather to your beard. Using the right shaving lather is an important point which you must not lose sight of. After the face skin has been weathered, using the right shaving lather makes it even smoother. This will help the razor to glide over the skin and it will remove the hair particles quite effortlessly.

Nowadays market offers a lot of different products for shaving: foams, gels, soaps and creams. It’s up to up to you what product to select. Modern shavers will most likely select cream, but soaps also become more and more popular. The process of lathering shaving soap with brush will bring you a lot of pleasure.

When you leather beard make sure you don’t remove your pre-shave oil or cream. This will allow the blade to glide easier.

Shaving

Your beard is ready and you have a cup of warm water for cleaning razor. Now it’s time to shave. The technique of shaving with Safety Razor is not very difficult to master.

The most important rule to keep in mind is: always hold the blade at about 30 degrees angle to the surface of the face. Always! This is the most comfortable and safest angle to avoid accidental cuts. How you do this? Just hold the handle at 45 degrees angle.

During the first pass shave along the direction of your hair.

Don’t put pressure to the razor! If you shaved with cartridge device before you know that you need to put a lot of pressure to it and this will result in clean shaving. Forget about this when you use safety razor! Let the weight of the razor do the major part of the work. If you put too much pressure you will get a serious injury. If you feel you need to put pressure your blade is not sharp enough. It’s better to remove it and use new.

Use small strokes. Using long strokes is not recommended for double-edged razor or you may get a serious cut.

Taut the skin to make shaving easier. When you taut the skin the razor moves easier and cuts facial hair better.

Pay attention to shaving problem areas: above and below the lips, beneath the jawline, or any other place on the face that is contoured instead of flat. When shaving these areas don’t rush. Take your time. It’s better to take several passes.

After you have removed all the hair clean the face and apply one more thin coat lather for the second pass. This pass is required to remove all remaining hair. Now you must shave against the hair direction. Pay attention to the second pass because you will have to keep the razor in different position.

Post-Shaving Routine

Clean the face, remove all the lather/cream/foam with water. Splash face with cold water to close pores. Use towel to make your face dry and apply aftershave. Aftershave tones and hydrates the skin. There are two types of aftershaves - alcohol-based and witch hazel-based.

Alcohol based are the most widespread because of the price. They are usually cheap. But they are not so good for the skin.

Witch hazel-based are more expensive and less popular. But they affect the skin better.

Which one to choose? We recommend to try both and make a decision.

Maintaining Razor and Brush

Every time after you finish shaving you need to clean the razor with water and then put it into rubbing alcohol for short period of time. This will remove excess moisture from the blade and other parts. If you are using steel razor you need to remove water by shaking it several times. Water causes rust and may affect appearance of your shaving “tool”. Do you want your safety razor to have rust? If not, store it as dry as possible.

If you use brush pay attention to making it clear and dry. Remove all the remaining lather with water and shake it until most of the water is gone. Store it in a well-ventilated area. Storing wet brush in a pack it may cause microbes to grow and it will get useless.